


the monster inside you

by saiditallbefore



Category: Jennifer's Body (2009)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Behavior, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Complicated Relationships, F/F, Mild Sexual Content, Necromancy, Witchcraft, a little bit of murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:46:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27773251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saiditallbefore/pseuds/saiditallbefore
Summary: It starts like this: Jennifer brings a ouija board to Needy’s house when she sleeps over, one weekend in middle school.Needy and Jennifer, and Needy and witchcraft, through the years.
Relationships: Jennifer Check/Anita "Needy" Lesnicki
Comments: 2
Kudos: 71
Collections: Heart Attack Exchange 2020





	the monster inside you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [darlingargents](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingargents/gifts).



> Title comes from "Replay" by Lady Gaga.
> 
> I did not make a joke about "Luigi boards" in text, but please know that I wanted to.

It starts like this: Jennifer brings a ouija board to Needy’s house when she sleeps over, one weekend in middle school.

“It’s just a game,” Jennifer reassures Needy. Even so, Jennifer still insists that the atmosphere has to be just right: the two of them sitting cross-legged on the floor, the ouija board between them, and the room lit only by flashlights. (Needy’s mom wouldn’t let them have candles, in case they start a fire.)

Jennifer starts by— very dramatically— greeting any spirits listening. 

For a moment, nothing happens. The marker— planchette, Jennifer had said it was called— doesn’t even twitch.

“What do we do now?” Needy whispers.

“Ask it a question!” Jennifer replies.

“Um.” Needy bites her lip, trying to think of one. “What’s your name?”

Once again, nothing happens. “We should try a yes or no question,” Jennifer says. “Are there any boys who like Needy?”

“Jennifer!” Needy shrieks. But the board starts to spell out an answer.

“It says yes!” Jennifer says. She pokes Needy. “Wonder who likes you?”

Needy covers her face, giggling. 

They ask the board all kinds of questions— mostly silly questions, like which celebrities were the cutest, or about what kind of spirit is talking to them. It’s incredibly spooky, but neither one of them takes it very seriously. 

Both Needy and Jennifer lose their interest quickly, and abandon the board to go and watch a movie.

Neither one of them would remember— would _bother_ to remember— except for what happens later. 

They are just getting ready to turn off the lights and climb into bed when Needy hears a rattling noise. When she turns around, she sees the planchette moving, all on its own.

“Jennifer, what the heck?” Needy exclaims.

“I’m not doing anything!” Jennifer sounds almost as freaked as Needy feels. She’s closer to the board than Needy is, but still not close enough to make it move on its own.

Needy creeps a little closer to the board, as if it might jump up and attack her. But the board just keeps doing what it was doing. 

“What is it saying?” Jennifer whispers.

Needy watches it carefully. “F… E… R… A… N… I… T… A… J… E… N… N… I… F… E… R… A… Now it’s just repeating.” She swallows, trying to hide some of the fear that had overtaken her. “What about me and Jennifer?”

The board just keeps repeating, the same letters over and over. 

“I think it’s haunted,” Jennifer says. Her eyes are wide. She and Needy share a look, and they run toward the board together. Needy grabs the board, and Jennifer takes the planchette and throws it out the window. 

Needy shoves the board under her mattress, where it can’t move. Then she jumps on top of the bed.

Jennifer joins her. After a few, quiet, moments, the two of them begin to laugh in relief.

* * *

Maybe even that would have been forgettable, or just a spooky story to tell in a few years, if it had been an isolated incident. But strange things _kept happening_. 

Needy kept finding her homework in a different spot than where she’d left it. She was having strange dreams— dreams where she was walking down an endless series of tunnels or through a giant maze, and just when she was about to escape, she woke up.

Sometimes, she thinks she sees things out of the corner of her eyes.

“I think I might be going crazy,” she confides to Jennifer.

“Maybe you’re being haunted,” Jennifer suggests with a laugh. 

Needy smiles, but she wonders if there’s more truth to Jennifer’s joke than she knows. Later that night, she sits down at the computer and types into the search bar, ‘how do i know if i’m being haunted’.

The results are scattershot. Some are for reviews of horror movies, some are for hard-to-read websites filled with ghost stories. Finally, she finds a website that looks like the creator knows what they’re talking about. It goes in detail about the signs of a haunting— several of which Needy has already experienced— but claims that most ghosts are harmless.

There’s one sentence near the end that really attracts Needy’s attention: _Ghosts are particularly attracted to the presence of witches, or of latent witches._

What does that mean? There’s no further explanation that Needy can find; are witches real? Well, if ghosts are real, she guesses there’s no reason that witches can’t be. But further research on the topic only turns up confusing and contradictory information. No one seems to have a clear idea of exactly what a witch is, much less a latent witch, and no one can tell Needy why a ghost might be attracted to them.

By the time her mom makes her get off the computer and do her homework, Needy is frustrated by the lack of clear information.

She doesn’t talk about ghosts with Jennifer the next day, partly because she still isn’t sure she has any answers, and partly because she doesn’t want Jennifer to laugh at her. They split up after school: Jennifer has cheer practice, and Needy usually goes straight home. Today, though, she goes to the library.

Needy spends a little more time in the city library than Jennifer; she does like to read, and she’s learned her way around the nonfiction section for school reports. But she still isn’t quite sure where to start. 

Figuring that she’ll know what she’s looking for when she sees it, Needy begins wandering the nonfiction shelves. She wanders back and forth, scanning the shelves. Finally, she sees a handful of books on witches and witchcraft. They look kind of old and out-of-date, even by the very sad standards of the Devil’s Kettle city library.

Needy pulls the books off the shelf and begins paging through them, right there in the middle of the aisle. 

* * *

“Jennifer, look at this!” Needy shoves a book at Jennifer. 

“What _is_ this?” Jennifer asked, holding the book away from her like it might bite her. 

“It’s a book about witchcraft,” Needy says, smiling. Jennifer doesn’t seem to understand the significance of this, so Needy continues. “For us! We’re going to learn magic and stuff!”

“What, like Harry Potter?” Jennifer asks, proving that even she isn’t too cool to have seen the movies.

“Real magic,” Needy insists. “Like this.” She flips through one of the books until she finds the right page. It’s the only spell she’s practiced, and she hopes she can manage it again.

She carefully reads the spell— she’s pretty sure it’s in Latin, but she doesn’t really know— and then carefully focuses on the book still in Jennifer’s hands. Slowly— very slowly— it lifts into the air. 

“Holy shit,” Jennifer breathes. 

Needy loses her concentration and the book falls to the ground, but that doesn’t seem to bother Jennifer. 

“Do you think I could do that?” Jennifer is wide-eyed and impressed, and Needy can’t help but be proud of herself: _she_ managed to impress _Jennifer_.

“Probably,” Needy says. “I think a lot of these take more than one person, actually.”

“Cool,” Jennifer says. “Where do we start?”

They start with an exorcism. 

Well, exorcism sounds bad. It’s just that the ghost that’s been following Needy around is _still there_ , and it’s been getting pretty annoying. No disrespect to the ghost, but Needy would love to be able to do her homework without her papers getting all mixed up or her pens going missing.

Needy and Jennifer conduct the ritual in Needy’s bedroom. It didn’t seem to take much: just the two of them, a handful of candles (Needy’s mom definitely doesn’t know what they’re doing), and a few scraps of paper. The two of them hold hands and chant a spell that neither one of them quite understands, and it’s surprisingly intimate. And then Needy writes a description of the ghost on the paper— she’s supposed to use its name, but she doesn’t know that. When she’s done, she burns the paper.

“Do you think it worked?” Jennifer asks.

“I don’t know,” Needy says. “I guess we’ll find out soon.”

* * *

To Needy’s relief, the ghost doesn’t come back.

That’s not the end of her and Jennifer’s foray into magic. It’s not the only thing they do— Needy’s pretty sure that they spend more time paging through fashion magazines or talking about boys— but it’s a fun way to pass the time, or a shortcut when they need one.

Needy spends more time on it than Jennifer. She’s checked out all the books on magic from the library more times than she can count. She’s made copies of the spells that interest her, and sometimes she surfs the internet, looking for more, now that she knows what she’s looking for. She’s compiled all of the spells she’s collected into a binder, and she shows them to Jennifer whenever she wants to talk about magic.

There are some she doesn’t show Jennifer, though. That she tries not to think about. Those are the ones that scare her.

Those are the ones that are less like spells and more like rituals. Some of them call for sacrifices. Some of them involve calling on demons or other entities for power. Needy can’t help herself; she reads all of them carefully. Most of them come with grisly warnings and gory illustrations of all the things that could go wrong.

They haunt her nightmares, but she still doesn’t stop. They’re fascinating. Needy is more than happy being able to levitate a few books or change the color of her hair at will. She can’t imagine the kind of person who would use one of these— who would sacrifice everything for money or fame or power.

* * *

The first time Jennifer kisses Needy, it’s a surprise. 

It’s their second year of high school, and they are at a party— the excuse is a football game, but in Needy’s experience, anything could be an excuse to throw a party in Devil’s Kettle. 

If not for what happens later, the party wouldn’t even be that memorable: Needy nurses a drink while the rest of their classmates get wasted and watches Jennifer flash her cleavage at any boy who isn’t giving her enough attention. The strangest thing that happens is that a couple of the boys there actually try to hit on Needy. 

Probably just because her tits have finally shown up, and her outfit actually shows them off, but still. 

They walk to Needy’s house together afterward, both a little tipsy. It’s comfortable: like an extension of their childhood slumber parties. They lay down on top of Needy’s bed together, facing each other.

It’s comfortable. They’ve done this for years, sharing secrets and gossip and plans for the future.

And then everything changes: Jennifer leans forward and kisses Needy. Jennifer’s lips are soft, and taste like chapstick, and her hand gently brushes Needy’s hair away from her face.

Jennifer pulls back. She looks more unsure of herself than Needy has ever seen her. 

“What are you—” Needy begins. She didn’t know what to say. Jennifer, her best friend in the whole world, has just kissed her.

“I’m sorry,” Jennifer says. “I just—”

Needy doesn’t know what Jennifer is going to say. But she does know that if her relationship with Jennifer can also have this, then she wants it. 

Needy isn’t as experienced at kissing as Jennifer: she’s kissed a few boys at parties, but that’s all. But she doesn’t let that stop her— she leans forward, pressing her lips to Jennifer’s, running her fingers into Jennifer’s silky hair.

She pulls away. “Don’t be sorry.” It’s the boldest thing Needy has ever heard herself say, but she doesn’t let herself take it back. 

Jennifer smiles, and she kisses Needy again.

* * *

Jennifer leans against the lockers and twirls her hair. “Hey, Needy.”

Needy smiles. “Hey.”

“So, there’s this really cool band from the city, playing at Melody Lanes tonight,” Jennifer says. “The lead singer is hella salty.”

Needy rolls her eyes. “ _Really_ , Jennifer?” 

“Come on.” Jennifer grabs Needy’s hand. “It’ll be fun!” 

“I can think of a lot of things more fun than watching you flirt with some boys,” Needy says. 

“Well, maybe we can do those afterwards.” Jennifer bats her eyelashes. 

Needy laughs. “Yeah, okay,” she agrees. It’s always so easy to agree with Jennifer.

“Yay! You’re the best!” Jennifer blows her an air kiss, and leaves. 

Sometimes Needy wonders what it would be like to have Jennifer’s full attention. To be the only one she flirts with, the only one she looks to when she needs to be told how pretty she is. 

But that would never happen— Jennifer needs attention too much. She needs to go out and be seen and have boys flirt with her. 

On the other hand, there is something nice about it. About knowing that everyone wants Jennifer, but none of them see the sides of her that Needy does. That in the end, Jennifer will go home with Needy, not any of the boys she’ss always flirting with.

With that in mind, Needy dresses her best for the show: the kind of outfit that won’t give Jennifer too much competition, but won’t make her look like a total dweeb in comparison. 

They never really look like they belong together, no matter how Needy dresses, but at least she can pretend.

Jennifer greets her at the door with a kiss. Needy doesn’t make any attempt to hurry her along; as far as she’s concerned, she could stand here, kissing Jennifer in the entryway, for the rest of the evening. But that isn’t in the cards. All too soon, Jennifer steps away.

“Let’s hit the road,” she says. Then, “Is my lip gloss smudged?”

Needy glances at her as they walked to the car. “A little.” She rubs her finger along the corner of Jennifer’s lips. “There you go.”

Jennifer smiles. “You’re the best.” 

* * *

These Low Shoulder guys give Needy the creeps. That isn’t unusual; older guys who hit on Jennifer are almost always creepazoids. But the way they talk about her, speculating about whether she’s a virgin? Extra gross.

Needy wants to yell at them, tell them that’s her girlfriend they’re talking about. But she and Jennifer have never used that word, and Needy doesn’t want to start out now, without asking. Instead, she just confronts them for being jerks. 

At least the music is good— or it is until the fire starts. And then it’s all screaming, and the smell of everything burning, and trying to get herself and Jennifer out of the building. And then they’re out, but Jennifer is acting weird, like she’s drunk or under a spell. So weird, in fact, that she actually gets into that van with the super creepy guys from the band, and Needy can’t even stop her. 

Needy sits in the driver’s seat of Jennifer’s mom’s Sebring and cries. All around her, fire fighters are trying put out the flames, and rescue workers are dealing with the injured. Needy tries not to look— she’s sure that some of those people were dead, or dying. 

And she didn’t know where Jennifer was.

When Needy had finally cried herself out, at least for the moment, she drove herself home. 

She flips through all of her books, because she just _knows_ that one of them has a locating spell. It takes her entirely too long to find it.

The spell calls for a map. Needy has to run downstairs and search through the kitchen junk drawer until she finds an old tourist map of the town. It’s been in that drawer since her aunt left it behind on a visit three years ago, but Needy has never been so grateful for her mom’s refusal to throw anything away.

She runs back upstairs and clears her desk, throwing things to the floor haphazardly, to create a workspace. She spreads the map across the desk and unhooks her necklace from around her neck— perfect for a focus object to help her find Jennifer.

Needy dangles the necklace loosely from her hands over the map. She reads the incancation from the book— as always, it’s in Latin— and closes her eyes, concentrating.

Concentrating on Jennifer. On her dark eyes, on the way she smiles at Needy when they’re all alone, or on the way her hands felt when she runs them through Needy’s hair. 

She thinks about Jennifer all the time as it is; this should be a piece of cake.

Despite that, the necklace doesn’t move. The spell doesn’t seem to work at all.

Needy throws the necklace across the room. What is the point of magic if it couldn’t help her when she needed it?

She crawls into bed, holding tightly to her phone just in case Jennifer calls.

* * *

Jennifer doesn’t call. 

Instead, she shows up at Needy’s door, acting even weirder than she had back at the bar. She’s quiet, and keeps touching Needy, even more than usual, and then she throws up...something, all over the kitchen floor. It looks like ash, and tar, and metal. 

And then she’s _gone_.

Needy scrubs the floor, and she cries. Everything is awful. People are dead, and Jennifer is acting weird, and she _can’t get the floor clean_. She doesn’t have time to sleep, but that’s okay— she doesn’t want to sleep, doesn’t want to know what she would think about if she let herself. 

Instead, her mind latches onto the— the whatever-it-was that Jennifer threw up. Needy is sure she’s heard about something like this before. Maybe it’s some kind of extreme reaction to smoke inhalation.

Maybe it’s something worse.

As she gets ready in the morning, it’s like moving through a fog. Partly because she’s tired, but partly because the last night had been so awful, and the idea of facing the world outside her door is just— 

Before she knows it, Needy is in class. She knows from the whispers that people have already heard what happened, that some of them are talking about her and Jennifer. But she can’t bring herself to pay attention to any of them until Jennifer sits down next to her.

Jennifer looks just the same as ever. She’s dressed to the nines, and she smiles brilliantly at Needy.

“Jennifer?” Needy can’t help the disbelief in her voice. She’s wondered more than once if she’d imagined what happened with Jennifer the night before, but the evidence doesn’t lie. 

(It _has_ fucked up her nails, though.)

“God, Needy, you look like shit,” Jennifer says. 

Needy stares at Jennifer in disbelief. “What _happened_ to you last night?”

Jennifer flips her hair behind her shoulders, and Needy just _knows_ that she’s going to brush it off.

“The truth, Jennifer,” she says. “I was so worried.” Tears well up in her eyes, and Needy doesn’t fight them. 

Jennifer bites her lip, then leans closer to Needy. “I’ll tell you later. After school.” She looks serious for once.

Mr. Wroblewski enters the classroom before Needy can answer, but she nods at Jennifer in reply.

* * *

The two of them go to Jennifer’s house after school. They sit on Jennifer’s bed, and Needy listened in increasing horror as Jennifer relays what Low Shoulder did: how they had taken her to the falls that Devil’s Kettle was named for, how they had apparently performed some kind of occult ritual, how they had _killed Jennifer_ — or tried to. 

How Jennifer had eaten Ahmet. 

Jennifer relays all of this in a steady voice, but her hands shake a little. Needy takes Jennifer’s hands in hers, trying to give her the comfort Jennifer will never admit she needs.

“So, what do we do now?” Needy asks.

“What do you mean?” Jennifer asks. 

“Their ritual, whatever it was, went wrong,” Needy says. “I’ve read about these kind of things. Usually the costs are pretty serious. And whatever’s happening to you…”

“I feel okay now,” Jennifer says. “Better than okay.”

“What if that changes?”

Jennifer just looks bewildered by Needy’s questions. “I don’t know. I just—”

“What about those guys in the band— I mean, they tried to kill you! Are we just going to let them get away with that?”

“God, Needy!” Jennifer yanks her hand away. “I don’t want to think about them, okay? Can you just drop it?”

“Sorry,” Needy murmurs. She feels ashamed of herself; Jennifer has just been through something awful, and she’s already trying to pick it apart. “If you need anything—”

Jennifer smiles weakly. “I know.”

* * *

Despite her dorky reputation and her secret penchant penchant for studying the occult, Needy had not previously spent much time in the school library. So it comes as an incredible surprise when she discovers that the school library has an occult section— one about the size of the city library’s.

Needy carries every book in the tiny section to one of the tables. She spreads them out and begins sifting through them. 

It’s not until the fourth book that she finds what she’s looking for: an entry on succubi, created when virgin sacrifices go wrong.

It calls for them to be destroyed, with a blade to the heart. Needy hesitates, but she makes a copy of the pages and slides them into her notebook.

Later, Needy corners Jennifer outside the school. 

“Look at this,” she says, showing her the photocopies. “Does this look familiar or what?”

Jennifer frowns. “Freaky,” she says. “So are you going to... ‘take a blade to my heart’?” She raises her eyebrows.

Needy laughs, but it sounds thin and unconvincing even to her ears. “Never.”

In the nearby parking lot, someone turns on their car and the radio begins blasting music. 

“ _All alone in an empty room, nothing left of the memories—_ ”

Needy presses her hands over her ears. “Fuck this song _so hard_!” It has already become the town’s new unofficial anthem. Everyone else claims to love it, like it’s supposed to give them hope or something. Like the band are supposed to be heroes.

But Needy had been there. They aren’t heroes; they’re murderers. The only reason anyone loves them is because they called on a _demon_. And she can’t hear that song without feeling like she’s back in that fire, listening to screams, trying to find a way out. 

Maybe she’s never gotten out at all.

Jennifer pulls her hands away, and Needy realizes that the car is gone. A couple of stragglers are standing around, staring at them, but they turn away when Jennifer glares at them.

“What the fuck are you looking at?” she demands. No one ever wants to deal with an angry Jennifer— and they don’t even know that she’s technically a monster now.

Then she turns back to Needy, concern in her eyes. It’s a rare expression on Jennifer’s face, but a welcome one.

“I’m fine,” Needy assures her.

“Let’s get out of here,” Jennifer says. She grabs Needy’s hand and pulls her away.

* * *

Jonas Kozelle is dead. From what Needy has heard, the football player had been ripped to pieces.

Needy is certain she knows who was responsible, and the knowledge weighs heavy on her. But is it _really_ Jennifer’s fault? 

She’s known Jennifer for most of her life. Sure, Jennifer can be a little selfish, a little short-sighted. She likes attention from boys, and she doesn’t like it when Needy gets too clingy. But before her encounter with Low Shoulder, Jennifer had never come close to killing someone. Needy would have said that Jennifer wasn’t capable of it.

But now—

Needy watches Jennifer out of the corner of her eye as Mr. Wroblewski talks about Jonas. It isn’t like she expects Jennifer to get all emotional, or to care about Jonas Kozelle, of all people. But she just seems… bored.

Needy asks Jennifer right after school, as soon as they are safely out of earshot of anyone who might be listening in.

“Did you kill Jonas?” There is no point beating around the bush; at least this way, Jennifer will either have to own up to it or deny it completely.

Jennifer looks away. Needy figures that’s her answer.

“You don’t— I _had_ to. I was getting all weak, and I had these dark bags under my eyes, and now it’s— it’s like I’m strong again. Nothing can stop me.” Her voice grows excited and feverish, and Needy finds herself taking a step back involuntarily, backing into a nearby tree.

Once again, she can’t help but wonder what Low Shoulder did to Jennifer. How they’ve changed her.

There isn’t too much time for wondering at the moment, though; Jennifer steps closer to Needy again. 

“You don’t have to be afraid,” Jennifer says. She presses a hand against the tree Needy is leaning on. Then she brushes Needy’s hair back from her face and leans in. She presses a kiss to the corner of Needy’s mouth, then kisses her fully.

Needy opens her lips, letting Jennifer inside. She runs her hands through Jennifer’s hair, and finds herself pressed so closely to Jennifer that it’s like they were going to become one person. 

Jennifer almost never kisses her out in the open like this. Needy has never asked if it’s because Jennifer doesn’t want people to know she likes girls, or if she doesn’t want people to know she likes _Needy_. She doesn’t want the answer.

Either way, it’s reassuring, knowing that Jennifer is here. Whatever happened to her, whatever was _still_ happening to her, Needy knows that Jennifer is a constant. It will always be the two of them.

* * *

For a while, everything is fine. Things go back to the way they were: school, spending time with Jennifer, and reading up on magic. Needy devotes a little extra time to researching some of the darker rituals that have always scared her, trying to figure out exactly which one Low Shoulder performed. It probably doesn’t _really_ matter, but she still wants to know.

Maybe if she looks hard enough, she can find a way to help Jennifer.

Jennifer doesn’t seem interested in the mystery, though. Actually, she seems less interested in magic than ever.

Maybe Needy wouldn’t be interested in magic anymore, either, if it had been used against her.

Needy is sprawled across Jennifer’s bed, her occult notes spread out in front of her, when she brings the subject up.

“What if I don’t want that?” Jennifer asks. 

Needy frowns. “What do you mean?” 

“Look at this.” Jennifer rummages around in her vanity, then moves to the bed. She cuts straight across the palm of her hand with an x-acto knife. Before Needy can even react, the cut has already started to heal over. “I’m stronger, too. And I don’t want to give this up.”

Needy sits straight up. “Even if it makes you kill people?”

Jennifer shrugs. “Who’s really going to miss them?”

Of _course_ people miss Jonas and Ahmet; hasn’t Jennifer been at school? Hasn’t she seen how fucked up everyone is about all the deaths? 

“How can you not _care_?” Needy finds herself saying.

Jennifer sinks onto the bed next to Needy, wrinkling some of the occult notes. “I _care_ , just— .” She wrinkles her nose, and Needy hates how cute it is. “I don’t care about them. I care about you, and me.” She grabs Needy’s hands. “Are you mad at me?”

“It’s too hard to be mad at you,” Needy says. Sometimes she wishes that wasn’t the case. 

“You’re thinking too hard,” Jennifer says. She massages her thumbs into the backs of Needy’s hands. 

Maybe Jennifer is right. Maybe Needy _is_ thinking too hard about all of this. It takes only moments for Needy to push most of her papers to the floor, and then she and Jennifer are kissing. It’s familiar. Comfortable. They’ve done this more times than Needy can count, and when Jennifer pushes aside Needy’s cardigan, running her hands up Needy’s stomach, it’s only too easy for Needy to stop thinking about anything else.

She rolls over, pinning Jennifer back, sucking gently on Jennifer’s pulse point. No one ever questions if Jennifer has hickeys, but it makes Needy proud to know that she’s left a mark on Jennifer where everyone can see.

Jennifer shucks off her miniskirt, and begins working on the button to Needy’s pants. Needy reluctantly pulls herself away from Jennifer’s neck.

“Here, let me,” she says. In a matter of moments, she’s naked. Maybe with someone else she would be shy, but this is Jennifer.

And despite everything, Needy trusts Jennifer.

Jennifer is naked except for her BFF necklace. She runs her hands down Needy’s body, smirking just a little, and Needy shivers in anticipation. She presses a kiss to the inside of Needy’s thigh, then another. And then she leans down to Needy’s cunt, licking a long stripe into her. Needy jumps at the sensation, letting all thoughts fall out of her mind. There is nothing in this moment but her and Jennifer, and the feeling building deep inside of her. 

And when she comes, she feels like she’s falling apart, with no one but Jennifer to hold her together.

They lay together in bed for sometime after. Jennifer’s mom is out, and neither one of them has anywhere to be. Needy runs her hand along Jennifer’s hair, smoothing it out.

These are the moments she treasures the most: when it’s just the two of them, and the rest of the world can’t intrude on what they have together.

* * *

When Colin Gray, the school’s resident goth, asks Jennifer out, Needy doesn’t expect her to accept. Jennifer flirts a lot, but she doesn’t go on actual dates. Especially not with guys like Colin.

“What are you doing?” Needy hisses at her. They’re standing at her locker— part of their daily ritual before Jennifer goes to cheer practice and Needy goes home.

Jennifer shrugs innocently at her. “ _He_ asked _me_ out.”

“You know what I meant,” Needy growls.

“Are you jealous?” Jennifer tilts her head, smiling. She pats Needy’s arm. “Don’t be like this.”

Needy yanks her arm back. She doesn’t want Jennifer to touch her right now. “Whatever. Have fun on your date.” She slams her locker door and storms out of the school.

Needy lets the anger simmer in her the whole way home. Since when is Jennifer into _Colin Gray_? 

It’s just so— so— it’s _infuriating_. Jennifer seems to think that Needy is always going to be there.

Probably because she always has been. 

But Needy is getting tired of this. She’s tired of feeling like she’s a secret, like she takes second place in Jennifer’s life. 

She’ll try to talk to Jennifer about it— but _after_ her date with Colin Gray. For now, instead, Needy distracts herself by reading through her binder of magical spells and rituals. Some of them have notes she or Jennifer have written in the margins about things they’d like to try or things they’ve actually tried. 

Needy comes upon the page about succubi. There are a few passages she’s underlined, and she scribbled a number of question marks next to the sentence about putting a blade into the heart of a succubus.

There’s more on that page, too— things that Needy has read but refused to think too hard about, all about how a succubus has an insatiable appetite and how they kill men to replenish their life force.

It’s gotten late. Needy should be in bed. But now she can’t stop wondering what Jennifer is really planning.

The next day, Needy is exhausted before she even gets to school. She’s irritable and worried, and she’s snappy when Jennifer asks her what’s wrong.

She hates being suspicious of Jennifer. She hates that all of their interactions have an underlying tension. 

Later, she won’t remember anything that happens at school that day, only the sick feeling of tension growing in her stomach.

Needy doesn’t even have to try to overhear when and where Colin and Jennifer are meeting; they had that conversation right in front of her. It’s easy to follow them there.

Their date is apparently in a house that’s still under construction. If Needy didn’t know Jennifer so well, she might even find this believable, but the candles are more reminiscent of a magic ritual than they are of romance.

Things start happening before Needy even realizes. One second, Jennifer is heavily flirting with Colin, and the next second she has too many teeth. 

Needy doesn’t move quickly enough. There’s a lot of blood, and it all seems to belong to Colin. Someone is screaming, and she realizes entirely too late that it’s her.

“You’re killing him!” Needy knows she sounds hysterical, but she can’t help it.

“What are you doing here?” Jennifer demands.

“You’re _killing_ people,” Needy says.

Jennifer rolls her eyes. “I’m killing _boys_. Don’t be so uptight!” 

“Uptight?” Needy can’t keep the outrage out of her voice. She shoves Jennifer, despite knowing that Jennifer is now much stronger than her. “I’m sick of your shit, Jennifer! The only person you care about is yourself— I don’t even know if you care about _me_! And I can’t let you do this— I can’t let you just kill whoever you want.”

She’s crying, but she means every word. As she speaks, she hopes Jennifer will listen. That somehow, this is going to end with the two of them going home and getting cleaned up and putting all of this behind them.

Instead, Jennifer lashes out at Needy. For the first time, Needy gets a good look at her monstrous face— her black eyes, her sharp teeth. Like everything else about Jennifer, it’s beautiful.

Needy stumbles backward, tripping over Colin’s body. Jennifer’s teeth and nails rake into her— not in the pleasant way they’ve done before, but with the intent to injure. 

They’re both on the floor now, grappling. Colin’s blood is everywhere, and Needy is sure that her own blood is mixing in. And then the candles go flying, rolling across the floor. 

Jennifer starts levitating— and since when can she do that?

Needy reaches around behind her for something, anything, to defend herself with. Her hand lands on a screwdriver, probably left behind the last time a construction worker was here.

And then Jennifer falls, and Needy—

She’s not sure if she meant to do it or not. She’d like to think it was just a reflex, in the heat of the moment. But maybe it was more than that. Maybe it was a decision, brought on by her anger and her desperation and her desire to just make all of this stop.

Either way, the end result is the same: the screwdriver goes through Jennifer’s heart, and she’s dead.

* * *

Apparently, Needy’s fingerprints are found at the crime scene. When the cops search her room, they find her occult materials.

She’s ‘off-balance’, they say. Crazy. Dangerous.

She tries to argue but, well, what can she say? That she killed her best friend, her maybe-girlfriend, because she’d become a monster?

At least in the asylum, she’s only as crazy as everyone else.

* * *

Needy had kind of expected to be applying to colleges by now. She’d never thought of herself as someone with _ambition_ , exactly, but she had a road map for her life: graduate high school, go to college, get a job, get married. Admittedly, all of her college plans had involved going to the state college and rooming with Jennifer, but they would have been so good together! Needy would have kept Jennifer on track with all the important stuff, and Jennifer would have dragged the two of them out to all the best frat parties. 

And they could go back to their dorm room and make out. Or maybe even make out elsewhere. Maybe Jennifer would have wanted to be actually be girlfriends when they weren’t in Devil’s Kettle anymore.

Instead, Jennifer is dead, and Needy is a wanted criminal-slash-asylum escapee. And the band who turned them both into murderers— who tried to _sacrifice_ Jennifer— is still _out there_. 

She’s still furious, when she thinks about Jennifer. Jennifer, who never thought of anyone but herself. Jennifer, who wouldn’t stop killing people. Jennifer, who had turned into a monster.

Jennifer, who had been the one constant in Needy’s life.

Needy has thought a lot about Jennifer, since she’s been locked up. About how Jennifer’s lips felt on hers. About how Jennifer looked that last night, when she was ready to kill Needy. About all the moments in between: Jennifer’s smile, Jennifer’s sharp teeth, Jennifer’s laugh, Jennifer’s blood. 

About the parting gift of freaky occult powers that Jennifer unknowingly gave her.

When she leaves the asylum, Needy really just intends to _get out_. To go anywhere else. If she runs into trouble, she’s relying on her new-found powers to get her _out_ of that trouble.

She follows the road as closely as she dares. She needs to get as far away as possible, but she _looks_ like an escaped mental patient. It’s not likely anyone will take her seriously like this. All she has to do is get _away_ , and start over somewhere. 

That plan goes abruptly out the window after Needy walks past a house, close enough to hear the radio playing inside. She’s tempted to break in and see if there are any clothes she can wear— her orange jumpsuit is a little noticeable for her tastes, even with the hoodie on top— but there’s obviously someone inside. 

She’s still debating when she hears the announcement: Low Shoulder is playing a concert in Madison next week. Apparently, the show is already sold out. And then the song— _that fucking song_ — starts playing again.

Needy wants to scream, or curl up and cry. _That fucking song_. 

But Madison is only a few hour’s drive east. 

It feels like a sign.

Needy pulls herself together enough to keep on walking. 

She’s cold and she’s hungry and sooner or later she’s going to have to sleep, but right now there’s a buzzing in her veins. She has a destination in mind, and she feels like she could walk forever.

When she finds the knife, it feels like another sign. 

It’s a risk to hitchhike, but Needy feels confident now. For once, the universe feels like it’s on her side. 

When she climbs into the stranger’s car, she’s acutely aware that the old Needy would never have done this. But the new Needy doesn’t have to be afraid of strangers. She has more than enough power to take care of herself.

“James,” the driver introduces himself as. If he sees anything strange about Needy’s clothing— or Needy herself— he keeps quiet about it. 

Instead, he talks about himself. “So Patricia— that’s my first wife— she absolutely loved Ace of Base. We drove halfway across the country for an Ace of Base show. Let me tell you, that is the worst music I have ever heard. The things I did for that woman…”

“Mmmm-hmmm,” Needy says, hoping he’ll take the hint to stop talking.

“Didn’t help in the end, though,” James continues. “Took me to the cleaners when we got a divorce. She ended up marrying her lawyer. Guess they’re still together.”

“That’s nice,” Needy says.

“I met Meg a few months after that. Now, she was a hell of a woman.” James shakes his head. “Those parents of hers, though— I tell you, kid, don’t have kids with someone if you can’t stand their parents.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Needy is actually contemplating whether throwing herself from a moving car would be worth it, but James doesn’t need to know that.

“That mother of hers just would not stop complaining. Always saying I should get a real job, like I don’t work my ass off as it is. And—”

He’s interrupted by Needy’s stomach rumbling embarrassingly loudly, and he gives her a sharp look. 

“When was the last time you ate, kid?”

“Earlier today,” Needy says. She’s pretty sure it’s not a lie.

“Let me swing through town up here and we’ll grab you something,” he says.

“Oh no, you don’t have to,” Needy protests. Partly out of politeness, but partly because if he asks for her to pay him back, she’s going to run into trouble.

He waves her off. “My treat.”

In the end, it’s just a cheap burger, but Needy is incredibly thankful for that small bit of kindness— and completely willing to listen to James’ ramblings for the rest of the drive.

* * *

Needy arrives in Madison several days ahead of schedule. She has no money, no food, no place to stay. All she has are the asylum-issued clothes on her back and a Bowie knife. 

Worse, it’s starting to rain. 

Needy pulls her hood up and walks down the street, no destination in mind. With her hands inside her pocket, she turns her knife over and over. 

Needy’s aimless walk takes past a city library. She stops in front of it, staring at the yellow glow of the lights. 

There’s so much she still doesn’t know about the occult. About her powers. And libraries have always been so helpful to her. If there’s anything she can find out—

She enters the library, dripping rainwater on the floor. The librarian at the reference desk gives her a suspicious look, but doesn’t move to stop her. Needy ignores her, and heads to the non-fiction section.

There’s only a handful of books on the occult. Needy grabs all of them and takes them to a table, where she begins flipping through them. A few, she immediately discards— they seem to be about the history of the occult. Interesting, but not what she needs. Maybe if she has time, she’ll give them another look.

The other books are more promising. One of them seems to detail a number of demonic rituals— those are almost certainly real, but Needy doesn’t plan on playing around with those. Not when she’s seen the consequences.

Needy pushes away the thoughts of Jennifer, and the feelings that always war inside of her when thoughts of Jennifer come to the forefront. This isn’t the time.

One of the remaining books details spells: spells for protection, spells for luck, spells for love. Needy studies these carefully, wishing that she had a notebook to copy the most important information into— some of them are spells she’s seen before, but she lost all of her notes when she got arrested.

Still, none of them are exactly what she’s looking for. 

It’s possible that the thing she’s looking for doesn’t even exist.

There’s a rustle, and some footsteps. Needy glances up, and sees a middle-aged woman walking past, browsing the nearby shelves. Needy pulls her hood a little further over her face., and tries to turn back to her reading, but the woman seems incredibly loud in the quiet library. The woman pulls a book off the shelf, pages through it, and sets it down on a nearby table.

Then she sets her purse down next to it, looks around for a moment, and walks away.

She’s way more trusting than Needy is, that’s for sure.

Needy has never stolen so much as a candybar before. But she hasn’t eaten anything all day except that burger on the road, and she needs some new clothes. And she’s already a criminal.

She stuffs the book of spells into her hoodie pocket, ignoring the way the pages bend and catch on the knife. Then she walks deliberately toward the table with the purse; its owner is nowhere in sight.

Needy moves quickly, pulling out the woman’s wallet. There’s less than a hundred dollars in cash, but she pockets it all.

She only has to make it three more days, and then she can deal with Low Shoulder.

And after that— 

Well. She’ll deal with that when it comes.

* * *

Finding the hotel— and even the room— Low Shoulder are staying in is child’s play. Needy doesn’t even have to use magic or any of her new powers to find it. 

She lingers outside the hotel, waiting for them to return after their show. When she finally spots them, Needy slips inside. 

She takes her time before following them upstairs. Better to let them settle in and catch them off-guard.

With her powers, it’s easy to force the lock. It takes a little bit of concentration, and then the door opens with a _click_.

She can hear the members of Low Shoulder further into the suite. Needy closes the door behind her, and ventures inside.

It takes the band members a moment to notice Needy there. They’re halfway to drunk already, and at least one of them seems to be stoned. They’re _really_ getting into that rockstar lifestyle.

The lead singer is the first one to notice her. “Shit. How did you even get in here?”

“You don’t remember me?” Needy laughs, and allows it to be as bitter as she feels. “I guess you wouldn’t.”

“Sorry, sweetheart.” The singer staggers to his feet, setting the bottle of champagne on the table. “You want an autograph or something?”

“I think I’ll pass.” 

One of the other band members sits up suddenly. “Wait— Aren’t you that chick from Devil Falls?”

“Devil’s Kettle,” Needy corrects. She pulls the knife out of her pocket. “You forgot this, by the way.”

The assholes try to run, but there’s no escape for them. 

* * *

The bottle of champagne is still half-full. Needy takes a swig from it as she freshens up in the bathroom. None of the band members have women’s clothing with them— and why would they— but Needy digs around in their luggage until she finds clothes that will almost fit her. She has to roll the pants up at the ankle, and the v-neck pulls tight over her chest, but the jacket is warm. People might give her a few strange looks, but it’s better than getting caught in her asylum jumpsuit.

Maybe she’s drunk too much, or maybe she really is crazy, but she can imagine Jennifer’s mocking comments on her outfit, and the thought makes Needy smile.

After that, it’s the work of an hour to finish going through the band’s things, taking whatever she wants— mostly the rest of the cash and the booze.

Her fingerprints are going to be all over this suite, but that doesn’t matter. Now that she’s got a head start, there’s no one that can catch Needy.

* * *

Needy buys a sandwich and a bus ticket to Chicago. She spends the ride there alternating between napping and skimming through her stolen book.

She knows that what she wants to do is possible. _Anything_ is possible with magic.

She just doesn’t know what it will cost her— or if she’ll be willing to pay the price. She’s seen for herself how badly dark rituals can go wrong. She’s a murderer, but she doesn’t think she has what it takes to sacrifice an innocent person, if that’s what’s called for. 

But Needy is getting ahead of herself. There are things she has to do before she can start delving into magic too deeply.

The first is the most important. 

Needy finds her way to a store that sells board games, and she uses some of her stolen cash to purchase a ouija board.

Needy’s glad she doesn’t have to explain herself to anyone else. To law enforcement, her actions would probably seem irrational— more proof of her insanity. To serious magic practitioners, the ones who write the long forum posts online that she used to devour in the dead of night, she probably seems frivolous.

But this is important. This is how it all began.

More importantly, it’s how she knows what her next step is going to be.

* * *

Needy doesn’t have enough money on hand for a motel room, so she sets up her board in a park.

The location doesn’t matter, anyway.

She greets any spirits listening, and then she really gets started. “Is Jennifer Check here?”

The planchette moves all on its own, and Needy is reminded of that middle school sleepover where this all began. Somehow, the eerieness loses its effect when she’s alone in the middle of a brightly lit park, rather than giggling in her dark bedroom with a friend.

Y-E-S, it spells out. Then, B-I-T-C-H.

Needy sobs out a laugh. She had hoped that Jennifer would answer, but it’s different to _know_. 

Jennifer is dead, but she’s still here. 

Needy composes herself enough to speak again. “I’m going to bring you back,” she says. “I know there has to be a way.” Something occurs to her, and then she adds, “I mean— I assume that’s what you want?”

G-O-D-Y-E-S, the board spells out. Needy can almost imagine the look on Jennifer’s face as she says it. 

“Okay,” Needy says. Of course Jennifer wouldn’t want anything else. “Okay. I think I need to do some more research before I can move forward.”

N-E-R-D.

Needy smiles. This kind of banter feels familiar, even if Jennifer does have to spell everything out through the ouija board. 

“I really do have to go,” she says. She has research to do, and she needs to figure out where she’s getting more money. “But I’m glad you’re here.”

* * *

Needy haunts every secondhand bookstore and occult shop she can find. It’s refreshing, in a way; Devil’s Kettle had a weird surplus of books about magic, but Needy has never had access to real supplies for spells before, or to any believers other than Jennifer. In the past, she’s always had to make do with her mom’s old candles and spices she could buy in the grocery store, and to sketchy online forums.

Some people watch her suspiciously— maybe they subconsciously recognize her from the news, maybe they’re cautious about the material she’s looking into, or maybe they can just tell that there’s something wrong about her. Needy is always certain that at any moment, the cops are going to get involved and she’s going to have to flee to the next city.

She’s found a treasure trove of magic books in a used book shop, and she feels someone watching her, and this is where her thoughts wander.

Needy looks up, and sees a sharp-eyed woman watching her. The other woman is probably somewhere in her late twenties or early thirties, with dark skin and close-cropped hair. 

Needy tenses, ready to fight, or run. But the woman glances at the books piled around Needy and smiles at her.

“Are you interested in the craft, hon?”

It feels like a trick question, but there’s no point denying it. “Yeah,” Needy says. “I’ve been interested for a while, actually.”

“Self-taught?” the woman asks. 

Needy nods.

“I thought so,” the woman says. “You have that look. Tell you what: why don’t I buy you some coffee, and you can pick my brain. I’ve been at this a long time, and I can tell you a lot more than some of those books can.”

Needy’s pretty sure that this woman isn’t going to give her the answers she actually wants. But she’s not going to turn down free coffee and the chance to learn more from someone who actually knows more about magic than her. And even if this woman doesn’t know that much about magic, Needy has never had the chance to talk about magical stuff with anyone but Jennifer.

“Okay,” she says. 

Needy purchases a few promising-looking book and follows the woman— apparently named Michelle Reeve— to a nearby coffee shop. At Michelle’s urging, Needy orders a coffee and a slice of cake for herself. 

Michelle seems friendly enough— she claims that she’s been practicing magic for years, and she likes to mentor younger practitioners. Apparently she’s also a college professor, something Needy can picture easily. Needy’s side of the conversation is more halting. She tells about the books and websites she’s been reading since middle school, but she’s all too aware of how much she’s leaving out.

“You seem like you have a pretty good grasp on the basics,” Michelle says. “Too many beginners just jump right into the deep end.”

Needy forces a laugh, and hopes it sounds natural.

* * *

That’s not the last time Needy sees Michelle. Not only does the woman seem to frequent all the same magic shops that Needy has been spending all her time, but she also seems to see herself as something of a mentor to the younger generation.

It would probably be sweet, if Needy weren’t attempting to bring her best friend back from the dead. 

She floats the subject with Michelle, during one of these inadvertent meetings. 

“I came across a post online by someone saying they were going to bring a friend back from the dead,” Needy says. She stirs her coffee absent-mindedly. “Is that kind of thing even possible?”

She knows it’s possible, of course. Anything is possible. The real question is how far she’s going to have to go.

Michelle looks shocked. “That isn’t the kind of magic to play around with, Needy.”

“What do you mean?” Needy does her best to look innocent. She’s not sure if it works.

“Magic always has a cost,” Michelle says. “You don’t notice it with the little spells, but it’s there. But the larger workings— those usually require a sacrifice of some kind. And I can guarantee that it’s not the kind of thing you’re going to be willing to give up.”

Needy knows she should let the subject drop but she can’t help it. “Really? There’s no other way?”

Michelle looks at Needy— really _looks_ at her, for the first time. “Needy. Hon. What exactly is it that you’re planning on doing?”

Needy takes a long drink of her coffee. “Don’t worry,” she says. “I’m not going to do anything that I’ll regret.”

* * *

Here’s what all of Needy’s research has taught her: it’s relatively simple to bring someone back from the dead.

Under the right circumstances.

There are a few materials needed— candles and blood and a variety of herbs. The exact kind varies by spell. The ritual usually has to be done at a certain time of night, and under a specific phase of the moon. Most importantly, all the rituals Needy has found require either a body part belonging to the dead person, or the entire body.

Gross.

Very few of the workings actually call for ritual sacrifice, to her surprise, so Needy just picks one that looks manageable and as bloodless as possible. She packs everything she has acquired into a shoulder bag, dyes her hair brown in an attempt at a disguise, and sets off for Devil’s Kettle.

It’s time to bring Jennifer back.

* * *

Graverobbing is really gross. First, Needy has to dig up Jennifer’s grave. It’s hard work, and leaves her sweaty and exhausted before she’s even really gotten started. She’s working in the dark because she’s afraid of attracting attention— the Devil’s Kettle police force is small, but they’re sure to send someone to check out strange activity in the cemetery, and the chances of her being recognized increase enormously.

It hurts, being back here. If she wanted, she could be at home in a matter of minutes, say hi to her mom and sleep in her childhood bedroom. 

Except that that’s not how anything works. It’s a nice fantasy to indulge in, but if she were to really do it— to knock on her mom’s door— she’d be back in the asylum in no time.

She keeps digging up Jennifer’s grave. There’s no point looking back.

Finally, she hits the coffin. She doesn’t bother trying to open it by hand; instead, she uses her powers to do it. 

She had thought she was prepared for what she would find inside, but it turns out that there is no preparing for this kind of thing. Jennifer’s body has already begun to decay. 

Needy doesn’t know how to feel about that: knowing that her best friend, the person she loves most in the whole world, has turned into this. That she’s in that grave because Needy put her there.

She chooses not to think about it at all. If all goes well, Jennifer will be back in a matter of hours.

She cuts off a lock of Jennifer’s hair and places it in a plastic bag. 

Really, she could do the ritual here, if she wanted, but it just doesn’t feel right.

There’s only one place for this kind of thing.

* * *

Needy is out of breath by the time she arrives at the top of the falls. Jennifer died here; it only seems right to bring her back to life here.

She sets things up carefully: all of her candles are in the correct positions before she lights them, and the full moon is high overhead. She pours her herbs into a bowl and cuts her thumb over it with the same knife she’d used to kill Low Shoulder. Her blood drips sluggishly into the bowl, and she mixes everything together.

Needy rummages around in her bag and finds the paper she copied the ritual down on. As always, with these kind of spells, it’s written in Latin. 

(In her experience, all the best spells are in Latin. Magic can probably be done in other languages, but Needy isn’t sure if she would trust the translation.)

She reads the spell as carefully as she can. This is the dangerous part— this is the part where she’s petitioning a spirit of some kind— she’s not entirely sure about the details— to listen to her and bring Jennifer back. If she messes up, thing could go horribly wrong for her. And even if she doesn’t mess up, chances are that whatever is out there could just ignore her request.

And even if this goes right— she isn’t sure exactly what she’s promising. For all she knows, she could be selling her soul.

At the appropriate moment, she pulls out the bag that she placed Jennifer’s hair in and adds that to the bowl of herbs and blood. She finishes reading the spell, and she sets the ingredients in the bowl on fire.

Whatever she’s done must have had _some_ effect, because the ingredients burst into flame, burning brighter and hotter than they have any right to. Needy watches it, letting the light sear into her eyes, until the flames burn all the way out. 

She blinks, adjusting her eyes to the dim light. 

It doesn’t appear to have worked. She’s the only person here.

And then— there’s the sound of footsteps from behind her. Needy whirls around, wondering if she’s been caught.

Instead, she sees Jennifer. Jennifer, alive and unharmed.

“Jennifer,” Needy breathes. There are tears running down her face, but she can’t bring herself to be ashamed.

“You fucking psycho,” Jennifer says, but she’s grinning. And then they’re embracing, and Needy knows she’s clinging to Jennifer in what would be a totally embarrassing way any other time, but given the circumstances she’s willing to cut herself some slack.

Needy thinks of something and pulls away slightly. “You’re not feeling the urge to eat anyone, are you?”

Jennifer seems to think about it. “No.” She huffs a sigh. “I know it’s probably, like, better, but I really did like my x-men powers.”

“I guess we’re just going to have to practice magic some more,” Needy says. “I might even know someone who can teach us some shit.”

“Later,” Jennifer says. She kisses Needy, and Needy kisses her back hungrily. 

They slot together perfectly, in a way that Needy is never tired of, and it feels like coming home.

But this time, Jennifer is the one to pull back.

“Jennifer?” Needy raises one eyebrow. 

“You’re the most important person in the world to me,” Jennifer says. “I wouldn’t be here, if it weren’t for you. So I just. I thought I should say it.”

“I love you, too,” Needy says. 

They’re going to have to skip town soon, before the authorities discover Jennifer’s desecrated grave. One of them is a wanted criminal and the other is legally dead. There could still be consequences from this resurrection that Needy hasn’t discovered yet. But they’re together now, and Needy is certain that together, they can conquer anything.


End file.
